The passenger pigeon could be resurrected by splicing its genes into the genome of its cousin, the band-tailed pigeon.

Beth Shapiro, an ancient DNA researcher at the University of California, and Ben Novak, a biologist funded by Revive & Restore, are working to do just that. So far, Shapiro and Novak have amassed 88 passenger pigeon samples from museum collections. But it will be a long, hard slog to determine which genes distinguish a passenger pigeon from a rock pigeon, and what the genes do, Shapiro says.

Added genes would be needed to craft the extinct bird’s long tail, red eyes and peach-colored breast.